Fall to me is a lot of things, but since I have started fly fishing, one thing is usually on my mind.....trout, the brown variety to be exact. With that in mind, I planned to head north hoping to catch the big boys out in the open staging to spawn (not spawning). Had plans with a friend to fish out of his drift boat, but he wussed out because he now has titanium screws in his hand or some other lame excuse. I told him it would make him stronger, but he wasn't buying it. I took off work Thursday and Friday to hit my favorite tailwater and then head over to NC Friday night to spend the weekend fishing with some guys from The Drake. It was a long drive, but anticipation and adrenaline kept me going.
I arrived Thursday afternoon to find that they were generating and when I could wade and fish safely would coincide with when I planned to meet up with Jay anyways.
We had a good time and I learned a lot from Jay. Namely that I need to cast further.
Had a few good hits that scared me a little, but never could connect. Jay caught a nice fish to me (he said it was small) right off the bat. I still had a good time, even though TVA screwed us.
Got in around midnight and planned to fish Friday morning before they started generating. Once I got up there, the generation schedule for Friday was posted and they were generating from 9am-10pm. So I had from 7am to 9am to fish. TVA sucks.
I made the best of what little time I had, but no big ones...
This guy had obviously already been hooked....
Once generation started, I had about 3 hours to run and fish down low before the water arrived. I fished for most of those three hours without catching a thing.
At least the scenery was nice...
I appreciate Travis and Jay doing all they could to get me on fish, but TVA was the main problem on this trip. No big deal though, I mean it was only a 6hr trip!
Left after lunch on Friday to go ahead and make my way over to NC. I stopped along the way and met up with Jay for some small stream fishing.
Saw a really cool old bridge:
Jay is up there somewhere....
Some random shed in the middle of nowhere...
All I caught were small rainbows..
So far my pursuit of brown trout had been a failure, or at least the big ones. I met up with the guys in NC Friday night and the beer drinking and BSing commenced.
The next morning came way too early and I somehow gathered my things and we headed to the first stream of the day. After a thiirty minute drive, we arrive and started suiting up and guess who had left their wading boots? That's right, another hour round trip behind because I am an idiot. Oh well, we got it together and were on the creek in no time. I caught lots of rainbows that were not worth the time to photograph, so I don't have lots of pics. This is some of the morning:
TX and Transylwader:
TX releasing a bow:
Some scenery:
Then we came across a deep pool that just had to hold fish. And boy did it....
In that case, a rainbow is ok with me, but I still am striking out on my pursuit of browns. We retire back to TX's man cave and drink beer and eat some awesome burgers.
We stayed up a while swapping fish stories and watching fly fishing films on the huge projector screen.
The next morning we awake with the task of getting me my first blueline brown trout. At this point I have accepted that I will not catch a big fish and just decide to go after numbers. We arrive at the creek, way down that hill...
Places like this are worth the hike in..
I found a beer can older than I am...
Fishing a 9 feet wide creek is tough with one person, add two more and it is complete chaos. We somehow manage it, but no fish are caught up this high...
We decide to make the grueling hike out to retreat to lower elevations in hopes of finding more willing fish.
A bit of a walk through this....
And then a hike up this back to the car...
The fall colors are simply amazing....
We get on the stream and I immediately hook up (please be a brown, please be a brown)
Son of a .......
I swear I am cursed. Why can't I catch the one fish I want, I don't even care how big it is, just let me catch a brown.
We fish on up....
Transylwader caught a real nice 14" brown, right after the other guy caught an 11" one. Apparently all I can catch are rainbows.
We work our way to the last pool of my 850 mile round trip to catch brown trout and I have zero browns to show for it. First cast, BAM! Fish on! The just as quickly, Fish off! :evil: Last cast, this is eat please something eat.....
Thank God!
That nice blueline brown saved my trip. Most people would be happy with the rainbows I caught, and I am, but I still in pursuit of that awesome brown trout day. Maybe next time I wil go after rainbows and maybe I will catch some browns then. However, this trip is over. I have a 6hr drive back and I need to hit the road. A quick celebratory beer and in the parking lot and I hit the road.
On this trip I learned you can't always get what you came after, but time with new friends, surrounded by beautiful mountains, and catching some nice fish isn't all that bad.
Again, thanks to Travis and Jay for all their help. I hope I can get back up there and fish with them again sometime soon.